History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 134

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206

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biographer and compiler of this history has no apology to offer, except to hope that the universal respect and esteem, mingled with the inany regrets that overshadowed his bier, may be the lot of those he left behind him.

AUGUST MAY .- Was born in Hessen, Prussia, May II, 1831, and there resided until he attained the age of eighteen years, at which time he moved to Bremen, and thence sailing to New York, he there embarked in the butcher business. In the spring of 1852 he took passage on the North America for California, and, coming by way of Cape Horn, arrived in San Francisco in the month of July of that year. He engaged in the butcher's trade there until October 24, 1854, when he came to Alva- rado, Alameda County, and entering into partnership with A. Main, continued in the same business, until 1874. In the mean time he purchased his farm, and to it has added since until at present he owns about one thousand six hundred acres, located in the vicinity of Alvarado and Decoto. In 1876 Mr. May paid a visit to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and since his return to the Pacific Coast, has been living in Alvarado (his property being leased) on the fruits of a well-spent life. Married, September 27, 1862, Miss Sophia Platte, a native of Germany, and has four children, viz .: George, August, Jr., Bertha, and Henry.

GEORGE MAY .- Was born in County Derry, Ireland; in the year 1819, and at eighteen years of age emigrated from Belfast to the United States, but suffering ship- wreck on the voyage was landed in New Brunswick, whence he sailed for Quebec, and remained there a few months. He then proceeded to Michigan, and after a short time went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he resided until leaving for California. He left Cincinnati on December 19, 1848, and New Orleans January 16, 1849, in the bark Florida. He crossed the Isthmus, and taking passage in the brig Belfast on the Pacific side landed in San Francisco May 15, 1849, and two months thereafter went to the mines, but not being very prosperous there he abandoned that enterprise, and returning to the Bay City proceeded to the Moraga redwoods, where he worked for five months. He then for the next three years occupied his time between the mines and San Francisco, until he was joined by his family, when he embarked in farming operations in Castro Valley, now Alameda County, on the property now owned by the Atherton estate, and there remained ten years. In May, 1864, he purchased his present valuable farm, consisting of three hundred and sixteen acres in the Livermore Valley, about two miles east from the town, where he has since maintained his domi- cile, owning several other tracts of land besides. Married in Cincinnati, 1840, Miss T. C. Botton, a native of England, and has nine children, viz., Annie (now Mrs. G. F. Bangs), Mary (now Mrs. McNeil), Laura (now Mrs. I. Horton), Isabel May, Wash- ington G., Emmie, Joseph, Lillie, and Ada.

HUGH BERNARD MCAVOY .- Was born in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Janu- ary 22, 1853, and is the son of Bernard and Isabell (Gallagher) McAvoy. He came to California with his parents in 1858 and resided in Alameda County until he attained the age of fourteen years, when he moved to San Francisco and attended St. Mary's College, from which he graduated in 1870. He then entered the undertaking estab- lishment of Flannagan & Gallagher in that city, where he remained until April 11, 1875, when he opened his business at No. 873 Washington Street, Oakland.

FREDERICK P. McFEELY .- Was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 22, 1840, and is the son of Edward and Susan (McCloskey) McFeely. At the age of eleven years he accompanied his parents to Erie County, New York, and at the proper age commenced serving his time as a machinist in the city of Buffalo, where he was employed for several years in Shepherd's Marine Engine Works. Subsequently he proceeded to Middletown, Orange County, where he connected himself with the manufacture of horse-shoe nails. In 1874 he removed to Cortland County, along with the works which had had been transferred to that place, and there resided until coming to California. Mr. McFeely is now located in busi- ness in San Quentin. Married, November 15, 1860, Miss Eliza O'Brien, and has six surviving children.

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

ANDREW J. MCGOVERN .- Was born in Albany, New York, October 27, 1852, and there resided until the year 1868. He then sailed from New York to San Francisco, where he arrived December 16, 1868, and first found employment as office- boy in the Second Street House. A short time after, however, he entered the service of G. W. Clark & Co., in the wall-paper business, and there continued for seven years. He then came to Oakland and commenced his present establishment at No. 1157 Broadway, under the style of Van Amburgh & McGovern. At the end of ten months, however, he purchased the interest of his partner, and a few months later associated himself with James Cahill, and in December, 1881, opened his extensive premises, No. 1060 Broadway, under the firm name of McGovern & Cahill, dealers in carpets, paper- hangings, window-shades, etc. Married, in 1879, Miss Mary Carey, and has two children, viz .: Francis Andrew and Genevieve.

PETER MCKEANY .- The subject of this sketch, and a well-known business man of Livermore is a native of Ireland, where he resided until about seventeen years of age. He then concluded to seek his fortune in the land of the free, and consequently came to America, spending the first five years of his residence in the United States in Boston. He then concluded to come to California. Coming via Aspinwall and Panama, he arrived in San Francisco April 14, 1859. Staying but a short time in the metropolis, he went to San José, Santa Clara County, where he found employment in a hotel until in 1862, when he returned to Europe, and after a residence of four years abroad he again returned to America and to the Golden State, this time locating at San José Mission, and embarking in farming until 187 1, when he moved to the then young town of Livermore and opened a meat market in the building now occupied by Church & Scott's drug-store. Three years later he purchased his present property on Union Street, opposite the Livermore Hotel, where he is engaged in the general butcher and stock business. Mr. McKeany is married and has three children, Maggie, Grace, and Kittie.

ANDREW J. MCLEOD .- Was born in Gallia County, Ohio, January 5, 1837, where he was educated, and resided until he attained the age of seventeen years, he, however, having had the misfortune to lose both his parents when very young. At the above epoch he started with his unele L. P. Gates, for the Pacific Slope. May 2, 1854, they crossed the Missouri River, and commenced the arduous undertaking of crossing the plains with ox-teams. After many difficulties they arrived at Mission San José in the month of October of that year. Our subject now engaged in farming near where the town of Centreville stands, where he remained three years, until compelled to take a year's relaxation on account of ill health. Mr. McLeod next went into business in Centreville for six months, when he became proprietor of the American Exchange Hotel there, and conducted it until 1866, at which time he sold out, moved to Washington Corners and built the Union Hotel, now kept by Mr. Brown, in that place. Six months afterwards, disposing of this hostelry, he returned to Centreville and embarked in the livery business, which he sold at the end of one year. A twelve- month later Mr. McLeod moved to Livermore, pre-empted a portion of the land on which the town now stands, known as the McLeod Addition, and there in the fall of 1869, engaged in a general mercantile business with Henry Meyers, under the firm name of Meyers & McLeod, in the structure known as the Bank Exchange Building, recently burned down, this being the first store started within the corporate limits of the town of Livermore, but outside of Laddsville. At the end of two years Mr. Meyers sold his interest to Mr. Anspacher, the firm now becoming Anspacher & McLeod, and two years after the interest of the first named was purchased by our subject, who then took into the business George C. Stanley, who in turn closed out in 1877. Mr. McLeod was appointed postmaster of the town of Livermore, in 1869, and held the office until January, 1882, while he has also been Assessor of Murray Township, to which position he was elected in 1879, 1880, and 1882, and holds that office at the present time. Married, in Centreville, November, 1859, Miss Delia Foley, a native of Ireland, and has: Norman, Mamie, Colin, Annie, and Leah.

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PHILIP H. MCVICAR .- Was born in Nova Scotia, July 7, 1857, and there resided until the year 1875, when he came to California. In March, 1882, he purchased from P. C. Heslep, the blacksmith shop and woodwork department, located on Railroad Avenue, Livermore, where he carries on a large business in every branch of his trade. Is married and has one child.

WILLIAM MEEK (deceased) .- This gentleman, whose portrait appears in this work, was the model farmer of Alameda County. His residence was at San Lorenzo, and his ranch extended towards Haywards more than three miles. He left Van Buren County, Iowa, on the first day of April, 1847, and crossed overland to Oregon City, where he arrived on the 9th day of September, the same year, with a large party of immigrants. Among Mr. Meek's effects was a wagon loaded with fruit-trees and seeds.' This constituted the first lot of grafted fruit-trees on the Pacific Coast. There were seedlings already in the country, introduced by the Hudson's Bay Company. Locating at the town of Milwaukee, on the Willamette River, five miles from Portland, he went into the nursery business in June 1848, with H. Lewelling, whom he had known in Iowa. In the fall of 1848, he went to the California gold-mines with an ox- team, and remained till the following May. The party he came to California with, made the first wagon track from Oregon to California, passing through the Modoc country, and skirting its lava-beds. On his return to Oregon he continued fruit- growing and lumbering till December, 1859. That year he sold out in Oregon, and removed to San Lorenzo, in Alameda County. His first purchase of land was four hundred acres of H. W. Crabb. This land originally belonged to the Soto grant. He subsequently bought one thousand six hundred acres more, which made two thousand acres. At first he devoted his attention to grain-growing and general farming. He managed his land with skill, and followed a system of rotation of crops. No man ever bestowed more care and attention on his land, or experimented more successfully. He built a water-reservoir in the foot-hills, about three and a half miles from his home, the water is conducted in pipes through his lands for irrigation, and general purposes. Mr. Meek was elected County Supervisor for four terms, com- mencing in 1862. He was a native of Ohio, and had reached his sixty-fifth year at the time of his death. He left a wife and five children, one of whom is married.

MARTIN MENDENHALL .- Was born in Greene County, Ohio, in the year 1828, and there dwelt with his parents until they moved to Cass County, Michigan, in 1834. Here he resided and worked on his father's farm until March 5, 1849, when he started for California with ox-teams by way of the plains, arriving in Sacramento on the 9th September of the same year. Here meeting his brother William M. Mendenhall, they moved together to the Santa Clara Valley, where they stayed until March, 1850. Our subject now started for the mines at Chinese Camp, near Sonora, Tuolumne County, and after laboring there four months left in disgust to rejoin his brother in Santa Clara. At this period Mr. Mendenhall went into raising and trading cattle. In the fall of 1852, he returned to Michigan, but the following March saw him once more on the way across the plains to the land of gold, accompanied by his newly made bride. They arrived in Santa Clara about the middle of September, 1853, and our subject resumed his former occupation of stock-raising. In 1854 Mr. Mendenhall moved to San Ramon Valley, Contra Costa County, where he engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits for eleven years, at the end of which protracted term he sold out and came to his present place in Livermore Valley, where he rears excellent horses and cattle, and raises good crops. In February, 1853, he married Miss Malvina Dolora Knapp, by whom he has had a family of five children, only three of whom survive, viz .: Clara, Julia, and Dora.

WILLIAM M. MENDENHALL .- This veritable pioneer of California, whose por- trait appropriately finds a place in the "History of Alameda County," was born in Greene County, Ohio, April 22, 1823, and is the son of William and Sarah (Peterson) Mendenhall. His forefathers were English, and came to this country with the famous

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

William Penn, to whom was granted what are now the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware, in the year 1681; the ancestry of his mother was German. The father of our subject was born in the year 1794, in Tennessee, and died December 19, 1870, while his mother, who is now eighty-four years old, is with her son, Martin Menden- hall, near Livermore, having passed, by fourteen years, man's allotted span of three- score years and ten. The spot where William M. Mendenhall first saw the light was within five miles of the little town of Zeno, and there he passed the first seven years of his existence, being surrounded by all of nature's most natural charms, and even at that tender age, brought up to feel upon self-reliance as the foremost instinct. In October, 1831, his family moved to the Territory of Michigan, then a wilderness com- posed of dense forests and virgin prairies. Here the frontiersman's handicraft was needed; the ground had to be cleared for the receipt of crops, and thus did he become, under the eye of his parent, a practical tiller of the soil. Here he received what education the country then afforded, and resided until he attained the age of twenty- one years, dividing his time between an agricultural life and the less monotonous one of hunting in the primeval wilds which hemmed him in on every side. But the cry of Westward Ho! kept ever ringing in his ears; to that cardinal point tended his inclination. To him the untracked wilderness was a home; therefore, when it became known that a company was being formed with the Pacific Coast as its destination, Mr. Mendenhall made up his mind to face the vicissitudes of the journey to the ultima thule of the American continent; consequently on July 3, 1845, leaving St. Joseph, he crossed Lake Michigan to the little town of Chicago, thence by stage and river to St. Louis, Missouri, and onward by steamboat up the Missouri River to Inde- pendence, ten miles west of where, on the bank of Hickory Creek, he pitched his tent, there being with him L. Hastings, N. B. Smith, H. C. Smith, H. Stebbins, H. Downing, and a Mr. Locher, who had joined him at St. Louis. Remaining here in camp, they essayed to augment the strength of their company with recruits, but these they found difficult to persuade; some of the people had never heard of Cali- fornia-indeed, many doubted the existence of such a place-and were sceptical as to if Mr. Mendenhall and his party knew of that which they spake. On August 17, 1845, the party, consisting of thirteen men all told, broke camp, and at noon had their faces turned towards the Golden West. On the completion of the first hundred miles of the journey, they were stayed by the swollen waters of the Caw River, and how to cross it became the question. But three alternatives were left them-to swim, to wait, or to return; eleven chose the first, and two took the " back track." This stumbling-block overcome, the journey was continued to the South Platte, where one of the number joined a party of hunters from Fort Laramie, leaving ten of them to pursue their journey of two thousand miles, through an untracked main, and peopled with roaming bands of hostile Indians. When about two hundred miles west from the Kaw River, cautiously traveling and keeping a sharp lookout the while, an object was observed to their left, between them and the horizon. The question was, what could it be? Some said, the stump of a tree, others ejaculated the dread word, Indians ! When proceeding to ascertain what it actually was, it announced mortality by making signals, and as they halted the figure approached, and proved to be a white man of some five and twenty years of age. He was almost in a state of nature. What had once been a shirt, hung about his body in shreds, while his nether garments were worn to ribbons that hung suspended from his waist, his legs and feet being innocent of protection or cover. Slung from his shoulders was a powder-horn; in his waist-band he carried a knife, while in his hands he bore some frogs. He was too weak and faint from want of food to talk, therefore he was fed. Such was his joy at meeting with members of his own race that it was some time ere he told his tale. It was thus: During the spring of 1845 he had started from civilization with some emigrants bound to Oregon, but when they had got as far as Fort Laramie, he with two others, became discouraged, and turning back homewards, on the third night

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were attacked by Indians and his companions murdered, while the redskins stole their horses and their guns. How he had escaped was a marvel. He lay concealed in a thicket until the hostiles had taken their departure, and thereafter wandered about, subsisting on frogs that he had caught. At last, after nine days, he found himself face to face with his own countrymen. His tale being told, every inducement was offered him to proceed to California, but to no avail; his dejection was complete; he said there was not money enough in the whole United States to induce him to turn westward again. He was furnished with provisions, and left to continue his " wandering woe." . He bore the traces of having been a fine-looking man, and was a native of the State of Illinois. His name he gave, as also his father's address, and Mr. Mendenhall, after his arrival in California, informed the latter by letter of the plight in which he had found his son, but never afterwards heard either of the father or the wanderer. Our voyagers now continued on their way, but they had not gone far when all but two of them were attacked with fever and ague, but nothing dis- couraged, they pushed on, traveling by day and keeping guard by night, until they arrived at Fort Laramie, where they had a ten days' rest, and were able to get some other provender than the buffalo-meat and other game on which they had been forced to subsist for some time. . Leaving Fort Laramie, they proceeded onwards, and at Fort Hall laid in some groceries at fifty cents per pound-rice, sugar, coffee, etc., all at that one price. After a few days here, our heroes were once more on the route, and tak- ing the old Truckee road to the Humboldt, followed that stream to its sink, where their provisions, which were intended to last them into California, perceptibly dimin- ishing, the party were placed upon rations. Here, too, one of the horses was stolen by Indians, when our subject and Hastings started in pursuit, and about four miles from camp came upon a party of Indians, twenty in number, who this solitary couple compelled to surrender their property. In the interval of their absence, how- ever, the main body had gone forward, leaving Mendenhall and his comrade to camp on the plain, dig a hole wherein to light a fire, and set it ablaze by discharging their rifles into the pile. The next day they started betimes to over- take their companions, and on coming up to their camp about three miles from the Truckee River, found neither man nor beast in sight. The fact was that the ani- mals had scented the sweet waters of the Truckee at three miles distance and had stampeded thither to slake their parched throats. To both man and beast this clear cold stream gave new life and nerved them all for further trials. Like the "chosen people of God" on Jordan's banks, our party remained for some days on the margin of the Truckee and pondered upon the Israel they had left behind them. Here they enjoyed themselves hunting, fishing, and otherwise, and in one of these excur- sions Messrs. Mendenhall and Hastings discovered the Sink of the Truckee. At the expiration of three or four days, and at the time of breaking camp, they were visited by a party of Indians, who offered their services as guides through the defiles of the Sierra Nevada, but fearing treachery these were made to accompany them for half a day, when they were turned loose. Fortunate was it for them that this precaution was taken, for the hills were full of redskins who were only waiting a signal to put them to death. The journey from the head-waters of the Truckee, was one of extreme hardship and danger, snow being so decp only from five to fifteen miles per day could be accomplished. At the sheet of water now known as Donner Lake, they found they had but four pints of flour remaining, and the country destitute of game. Press- ing necessity was their companion, therefore, upon consultation, it was determined that H. C. and N. B. Smith, Hastings, Locher, Downing and Semple should go on a hunt- ing and foraging expedition, leaving Mendenhall to take charge of the pack and the two sick men, Nash and Crosby. With his charge our subject journeyed on, and on the first night camped on the summit of the Sierras, and proceeding, came upon the head-waters of the Yuba and camped on the identical ground occupied the year previous by the late Martin Murphy and his party. This stream they followed for

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

six days, during which they suffered keenly from want of food, indeed during the last four days neither bite nor sup had passed their lips. Mendenhall now went ahead and at the head-waters of Bear River, from an old oak-tree gathered some acorns whereof he and his party partook, and thus allayed the pangs of hunger. They now got out of the region of snow and into the grassy slopes of the California foot-hills. On the fifth night out succor came, for they were met by N. B. Smith and Downing with provisions. The next night found them at Johnson's Ranch, where they pur- chased the quarter of a beef, cooked and demolished the whole of it. The following day found them at Nicholson's, on the Feather River, where that individual kept a sort · of house of entertainment, but who inhospitably refused them anything to eat; how- ever, meeting Samuel Neil, from Sutter's Fort, they were advised by him to shoot a fat cow or take possession of the premises, the latter of which they did, when the proprie- tor supplied them copiously, if grudgingly, with jerked beef. Thence they proceeded to Sinclair's Ranch, some three miles from Sutter's Fort, at which place they arrived on Christmas-eve of the year 1845, where they sat down to the first "square meal" that they had had since leaving Missouri. Here they met a Mr. St. Clair, who had a dwelling about fifty yards from Sinclair's house. After some trouble with the Indians the party arrived at Sutter's Fort, and found employment at various places until March, 1846. At this time Mendenhall and the two Smiths proceeded to Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in Sutter's launch, where they had some difficulty in getting a pass- port, but through the agency of the British Consul, they crossed the bay to where the city of Oakland now stands, and from thence started on foot for the San Antonio redwoods, but meeting two Spaniards their passports were demanded, which not being able to produce they were frightened away with the fire-arms of the party. They ulti- mately got to the redwoods, however, and there engaged with a Frenchman for some time in making shingles and sawing lumber, but this not meeting with the views of the irate Dons, twenty soldiers were brought into the redwoods to oust them. Men- denhall and his party, however, believing discretion to be the better part of valor, secured what horses they could, with their effects, and beat a hasty retreat over the mountains into the valley of the San Joaquin. They now found that stream swollen, but their effects had to be transported to the opposite bank, a hazardous undertaking, that was carried out by our subject and N. B. Smith, who swam the river each six times. That night they camped on what is now known as French Camp, near Stock- ton, and the following morning pushed on to the security of Sutter's Fort. At this period what is known as the "Bear Flag War" broke out, and with that small band Mr. Mendenhall marched to Sonoma, and took part in the stirring events described in our chapter on that subject. Then came the declaration of war between the United States and Mexico, and the recruiting of Fremont's famous California Battalion, with which our subject served, he being of Captain Ford's company. With it he procceded in their pursuit of General Castro as far as the Colorado desert, and upon returning to San Diego there learned of a threatened rising of Indians in the vicinity of Sutter's Fort. Ford's company was thereupon embarked on the United States ship Congress, Commodore Stockton, to quell the contemplated outbreak. They were landed at Monterey, whence they marched to Sutter's Fort, and found the Indians far from bellicose. They nearly all were hors du combat from sickness. Mr. Mendenhall's first visit to the Livermore Valley was on this march, when the troops camped on the ground where now stands the residence of Robert Livermore. At Sutter's the com- pany remained a few days, then took up the line of march, and finally camped on Cosumnes River to await the arrival of General Fremont. While here, our subject applied for and obtained leave of absence to proceed to Johnson's Ranch to meet William Duncan, a friend of his, with whom he returned to Sutter's Fort. He now concluded, with some immigrants, to locate at Stockton and commence farming, for which purpose he proceeded to Sutter's to obtain grain, but changing his mind he went to Yerba Buena and there opened a bakery in partnership with Duncan,

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 134

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood Number of Pages: 1206

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206